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Faber vs Barao:
Going to have to side with Barao in this one. As good as Faber has looked he lost a five round unanimous decision to Barao about a year ago. I'm sure he has improved since then but then again Barao has likely improved as well. I think Faber is getting so much credit for his four fight win streak but if you look at it you don't really see anything that demonstrates huge improvement in his game. He basically outgrappled Menjivar and Alcantara. That's the norm for him, nothing new there. He beat Jorgensen on the feet but frankly not by very much in my opinion. I could be misremembering that one but I don't recall him doing anything that impressive standing. That's the fight that makes me want to bet on Barao. It wasn't until Jorgensen basically gassed in round four that Faber was able to get him down and choke him out. Versus Mcdonald he looked good standing but that could be in part to Mcdonald being taken down in round one and being afraid to engage standing. In addition I think it was really just one shot that landed on Mcdonald standing that made the difference. I think Barao is still on a whole other level standing and his grappling could very well be better than Fabers. At least good enough that if Faber gets him down he will be safe and have a decent shot at getting back to his feet.
Aldo/ Lamas:
I don't see Lamas having the striking to get inside on Aldo. I'm not going to go into this one too much because I think we all probably figure Aldo wins it.
Reem/Mir:
I think this fight is Reems to lose so most likely that means he loses. I like the fact that he has decided to drop some weight to improve his cardio. That should help him against Mir. I don't like the fact that he mentioned in an interview that he might grapple with Mir. I know Reem is a competent grappler but Mir can obviously catch him and it seems like a pointless risk to take. Standing he is miles ahead of Mir.
Cariaso/Martinez:
Martinez is a better wrestler than Cariaso and probably a little bigger. His striking is somewhat rudimentary and I think his jiu jitsu is probably not very good though its sort of hard to evaluate. I only have two fights to go by. One against Jussier de Formiga and the other against Davey Grant. Formiga is so good at Jiu jitsu its hard to really knock Martinez for being outgrappled but its worth noting he did lose the wrestling against him. Cariaso did as well so theres not much to take from that. Martinez did tapped out by Davey Grant after a very long struggle to get a takedown against him that spanned almost two rounds. Grant doesn't have a wrestling background but he is a big strong guy in comparison to Cariaso. This fight is really tough to tell in my opinion. I think Cariaso should win the standup and be hard to hold down due to his guard being very active. Martinez doesn't seem to be a very good fighter overall but he might be good enough to hold Cariaso down. It might come down to what kind of ref the fight has and how they feel about stand ups. Tough call. I wanted to bet Cariaso but the lay and pray potential scares me.
I would appreciate any insight on Danny Martinez and Cariaso.
Going to have to side with Barao in this one. As good as Faber has looked he lost a five round unanimous decision to Barao about a year ago. I'm sure he has improved since then but then again Barao has likely improved as well. I think Faber is getting so much credit for his four fight win streak but if you look at it you don't really see anything that demonstrates huge improvement in his game. He basically outgrappled Menjivar and Alcantara. That's the norm for him, nothing new there. He beat Jorgensen on the feet but frankly not by very much in my opinion. I could be misremembering that one but I don't recall him doing anything that impressive standing. That's the fight that makes me want to bet on Barao. It wasn't until Jorgensen basically gassed in round four that Faber was able to get him down and choke him out. Versus Mcdonald he looked good standing but that could be in part to Mcdonald being taken down in round one and being afraid to engage standing. In addition I think it was really just one shot that landed on Mcdonald standing that made the difference. I think Barao is still on a whole other level standing and his grappling could very well be better than Fabers. At least good enough that if Faber gets him down he will be safe and have a decent shot at getting back to his feet.
Aldo/ Lamas:
I don't see Lamas having the striking to get inside on Aldo. I'm not going to go into this one too much because I think we all probably figure Aldo wins it.
Reem/Mir:
I think this fight is Reems to lose so most likely that means he loses. I like the fact that he has decided to drop some weight to improve his cardio. That should help him against Mir. I don't like the fact that he mentioned in an interview that he might grapple with Mir. I know Reem is a competent grappler but Mir can obviously catch him and it seems like a pointless risk to take. Standing he is miles ahead of Mir.
Cariaso/Martinez:
Martinez is a better wrestler than Cariaso and probably a little bigger. His striking is somewhat rudimentary and I think his jiu jitsu is probably not very good though its sort of hard to evaluate. I only have two fights to go by. One against Jussier de Formiga and the other against Davey Grant. Formiga is so good at Jiu jitsu its hard to really knock Martinez for being outgrappled but its worth noting he did lose the wrestling against him. Cariaso did as well so theres not much to take from that. Martinez did tapped out by Davey Grant after a very long struggle to get a takedown against him that spanned almost two rounds. Grant doesn't have a wrestling background but he is a big strong guy in comparison to Cariaso. This fight is really tough to tell in my opinion. I think Cariaso should win the standup and be hard to hold down due to his guard being very active. Martinez doesn't seem to be a very good fighter overall but he might be good enough to hold Cariaso down. It might come down to what kind of ref the fight has and how they feel about stand ups. Tough call. I wanted to bet Cariaso but the lay and pray potential scares me.
I would appreciate any insight on Danny Martinez and Cariaso.
Good luck homie
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